Funny Signs, 4th edition

It is time for the 4th edition of Funny signs  These are signs from places I have visited, social media, friends, and family. My brother Dale has joined into the fun. Thanks Bro!

Welcome to Texas!

Yep, Still in Texas!

First, It is impossible to breathe under water since breathing requires the intake and excelling of air.  Second, if you don't know in advance that you can't breath under water you should just stay on land.

Do we really need a sign to tell us that it is the same road both ways?

This is my favorite sign hanging in a restaurant. They have a great sense of humor in Somerset, Ohio.

Thank you Captain Obvious! 

Are the elderly now considered free gifts? At least she doesn't ever need to have her batteries charged.

Chipotle really takes parking seriously. 

Ok, this one really puzzles me. Were the Advertisers sitting around the table sharing ideas and someone says, "Let's offer free food for dogs while people get their oil changed."  Has this been an issue? Are people getting their oil changed and bringing their hungry dogs with them?  Do they look for a place to change their oil that will also feed their dog? Am I the only person that thinks this is a strange hook to get customers? 

Good to kknow!

Hope you enjoyed my fourth edition of Funny Signs and keep your eyes out for those signs that make you scratch your head and put a smile on face.

A shoe rant!

Ok, I am a shoe girl. Your clothes size may change, but you could always count on wearing the same size shoes. Shoes can make or break an outfit in my eyes. So, with this in mind I was excited to go shoe shopping to buy shoes for two dresses I am wearing to a wedding and rehearsal dinner.

Imagine my disappointment when looking at shoes in two different states and online that I could only fine one pair. Why do shoe designers think that every fashionable woman can, or wants, to wear 4 inch heels. Every patterned, or colored shoe other than nude, black or blue are 4 inch heels or higher. I am a middle aged woman that gave up high heels years ago. I prefer a kitten heel of about 1 to 2 inches.  They just do not exist in a cool looking shoe. Why can't I find these shoes in a lower heel?

So, the moral of this rant is that I not only have to contend with trying to find clothes to fit a body with curves from stores that are full of clothes that are made for women that are straight up and down like a 14 year old boy. But, I now have to wear boring shoes because the same women that are shaped like 14 year old boys like to wear beautiful shoes with 4 or 5 inch heels.  

It seems to me that there are far more women like me that have money to spend on fashionable shoes and cannot do so, because all the designers are making shoes for 14 year old boy bodied woman in stilettos. #SoSad

Hood Ornaments

Last year I did a post on the Concours D'Elegance of Texas. My husband and I went to the show again this year and though there were some cars that returned, there were many new cars in the show too. As I was looking at all the cars on display I was drawn to the cars that had cool hood ornaments.

Few cars have hood ornaments any more! Some have medallions and they can be colorful and very decorative, but they just don't have the same impact as an ornament. Many years ago we bought a used 1995 Jaguar Vander Plas and it had a great hood ornament. With that car we figured out why car companies stopped putting hood ornaments on cars, because creepy people loved to steel them.

A Jaguar hood ornament and plaque like the one that was on our old Jag.

One of the first Rolls Royce Hood ornaments.

The new hood ornament on the Rolls Royce is retractable. Very smart!

The early Corvettes did not have hood ornaments, but they had a very cool medallion. This was my favorite year of the Corvette. I am not a fan of any corvettes after the 60s. To me they ruined the style and the back end of the new cars are hideous.

The older sports cars at the Concours all had medallions, Porsche, Ferrari, Alpha Romoe, and Lotus. I guess if you have one of these cars you are more interested in what is under the hood than what is on on the hood.

The older cars and at the Concours like, Rolls Royce, Buick, Nash, Franklin and even the Good Humor Ice Cream truck all had great hood ornaments.

 For most of these cars it was all about the way they looked on the outside. These cars were like pieces of art and they most definitely were head turners!

If This House Could Talk

At what point do you realize that this is not functional and needs to come down?

My husband and I went on a trip to Austin in March and I saw an old abandoned house by the road and decided to take a picture of it. Then I saw another abandoned house, and another, and another. As I am seeing these dilapidated houses, barns and businesses I am wondering what is their story? We always see the half standing, or the completely demolished barns that in some cases are still being used, and my guess is that it is either cost, laziness or stupidity that the owners are not repairing them.

It looks like they are actually storing something in this barn.

It is amazing to me that there are so many barns in complete shambles.  Is this even safe? Are the owners not worried about the rest of the barn falling on their kids or themselves? There were so many barns that were still being used and I wonder what shelter they are possibly providing the products they are storing "inside".

I am not really sure this is a barn. Could be a house.

But the bigger question to me is what happened to dilapidated and abandoned homes?

This looks like it was a grand home at one time.

Personally, they make me sad. I wonder if they were family homes passed down to the next generation and they just couldn't keep it going. Did they lose the house because of a failing farm or ranch? What makes someone walk away, or what drives them away, from their home? Sometimes you will see an abandoned dilapidated house sitting on the property in close proximity to a newer house. In this case why are you keeping the older house? Memories? Or, is it just that much more expensive to tear it down?  So many questions!

This little house looks so sad.

Two abandoned houses on Main Street in a small Texas town.

This old abandoned business had a tree growing up through it.

Some abandoned or bordered up homes or business, were on the main streets in very small towns. Was the town once booming? Did they have a bustling cattle and farming community?  I picture a granary in the downtown area where the farmers drive their grain to ship out to places all across the country. Were there stock yards in town for the cattle ranches in the community? Maybe they were a oil town that went bust. Many, I am sure, were just people falling on hard times and had to move to bigger cities to find work.

I wonder what this house looked like in its hay day.

The story teller in me wants to know their history. I want to know the people that lived in that house, or ran that business. What drove them away? What are they doing now?

Happy Mother's Day, Mom

I love this picture of my Mom! She looks so very happy!

This is always a tough time of year for me. My Dad died on May 8th 2010, the day before Mother's Day. I remember driving home from Columbus to Indianapolis the Saturday he died. I needed to go home and pack to return the next day, Mother's Day, to help make the arrangements, and stay for the funeral. My husband and I stopped at a suit store in Indy, before we went home, to pick up his suits that were being tailored.  I remember walking along the sidewalk in the outdoor mall, and sitting in the store watching the people thinking these people are living their lives when I just lost my Dad. I wanted to scream, "I just lost my Dad! Show some respect!" It was a very strange feeling, and I can remember the feeling like it was yesterday.

My Mom and Dad. She just may be pregnant in this picture with my oldest sister!

Five years later on March 5, 2015, on my 32nd wedding anniversary, I lost my Mom. What is it with my parents and holidays? My dad was born on Columbus Day and my Mom on D-Day. As weird as that is, my Mother In-law was born on St Patrick's Day and my Father In-law on Groundhogs Day. It makes it easy to remember Birthdays, but unfortunately it also reminds me of my parents passing too.

My favorite picture of Mom and me! 

So, on this Mother's Day I will be spending brunch with my husband, my in-laws, my daughter, son in-law and grandchildren. I will be thinking of my Mom, and not just about how much I miss her, which I do, but on what a great Mom she was and how much I learned from her. She was so loving and compassionate and I try very hard to carry on those traits. My Mom was also very talented in so may ways, she was smart, wise, driven, creative, artistic, and inspirational.  She was a strong woman of high morals and deep faith that made her a role model for her girls.

Mom and her girls! Mother's Day is all about the girls!

Most of all she was a Mom. I would guess that if you asked her of all the things she had done in her life what she was most proud of, she would say being a Mom. She had a way of making us think we were special. My Mom was proud of every one of her seven kids, and we all knew it. She loved us all unconditionally, as we did her. She had the best sense of humor that was in full strength until the day she died, and it was one of the most special parts of her personality. As her memory slid she would make jokes to cover her forgetfulness and it was so endearing to everyone around her. She loved to make people laugh! This trait also carried on to her children and to her grandchildren, we all love to laugh!

Four generations of Moms. My Grandma (whom I am named after), my Mom, Me and my Daughter, who is a Mother now!

Along with missing my wonderful Mom on Mother's Day, I will be remembering her legacy of love. The memories that bring smiles and tears, and hopefully lots of laughter!

Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you! Kiss Pop for me, tell him I love him and make him laugh!

Our Fairy Garden Natural Disaster

A few years ago my sister Lynn showed me the fairy garden she put together for her granddaughters in Florida. When I was visiting her in Ohio we went to Joann Fabric and bought some Fairy Garden items for my grandkids to put in my yard. We started small and over the last year it has grown.

Our first garden in a smaller space.

Moved to a bigger space and added more houses.

My grandson loves the gnomes, dog and cat, and my granddaughter loves the whole garden. She loves to put all the gnomes, fairies, and animals in the one house that opens up. She loves to move everything around and when she is done it looks like a tornado has gone through the village.

Then on April 6th the poor fairly garden was hit with a real natural disaster, golf ball to racket ball size hail. We were not home when the storm hit, so we were not able to protect the poor garden from the huge hail. Unlike my tornado granddaughter's mess, this real storm did a lot of damage to our poor Fairy Village. We had damage to all 5 houses, two were dented and scraped, and three were hit so hard the hail broke holes in the resin houses. The most damage done to my granddaughter's favorite house. We also lost a chair and wood arch from the fairy garden, both were demolished.

After the Hail storm on April 6th.

There is a hole in the bottom of this house.

There is a huge hole in the top of my granddaughter's favorite house.

I told the kids that FEMA (Fairy Emergency Management Agency) would come in and give the Fairies and Gnomes temporary housing while we waited to get their damaged homes repaired or replaced. Off to Joann's I go to get temp housing. I found some resin tents and brought them home to set up in the Fairy Garden. They were perfect!

Temporary Housing from the Fairy Emergency Management Agency.

Now the real work begins. I will keep you updated on the Fairy Garden house repairs.

Grieving Across the Hockey Community

Our youngest son has played roller and ice hockey for most of his life. He started at 4 or 5 years old, and he is still playing at 26. He played House League, Travel Hockey, High School hockey, College Hockey and now Men's League. He won State and National Championships during all of those years. Our boy was a very good player and as he was getting older we, like every parent of a hockey player, had to assess their ability, their odds of a future of making a living at the sport, and what you as a parent are willing to invest financially and emotionally. Hockey is not like many other sports where you can find a team or facility at almost every school in every city. Ice rinks are few and far between and there are so many teams fighting for ice time. Some High School teams are on the ice at 5 AM just to get practice time. This is why some parents send their kids to cities in the US or Canada to tryout and play on Junior teams. This can also mean sending your young teenager to a different city, state, or country, and have them stay with host families.

On April 6th in Canada the Homboldt Junior Hockey team of 16 to 20 year olds were traveling on a bus to a hockey play-off game when they were t-boned by a semi-tractor trailer. Of the 29 people on the bus (players, coaches, staff and bus driver), 16 people were killed and 13 were injured. One of the hardest things to do as a hockey parent is to put your kid on a bus, or know your kid is on a bus going to play a game that you may not be able to attend. I did not have to experience this until our son went to college. All his years of hockey until college he was driven to almost all of his games by his parents and we attended almost every game he played. Then there was college hockey and things changed. He was hundreds of miles away and we were not able to attend all his games, and he was on a bus or team van many weekends during hockey season in the harsh Midwest winters.

My husband and I were in Indiana while he played for his Missouri college, and we were in Virginia and Texas when he played for his Ohio college. We went to as many games as possible while he played in Missouri, but far less when he started playing in Ohio. The fear of the bus drive was not the only worry, there was always the fear he would get hurt and there wouldn't be one of us there for him. We had the calls and texts while he was on the bus, and we got updates from our son on the weather and the drive. His girlfriend would attend most of the home games, so she was there for him and would update us on how he was doing.

When our son was playing high school hockey, a friend and brother of one of the boys he played roller hockey with, was playing ice hockey for a Chicago"Junior" team in a game in Michigan when he fell and hit the boards and broke two vertebrae in this neck. He is a now a paraplegic. As a parent in this boy's hockey community we were all devastated. The one thing I know I was grateful for in that tragedy was that his Mom was with him at that game. He was not alone.

Then early in the season of our son's Junior year of college he was playing a game in Northern Ohio, and we had just moved to Texas, when I got that call. My husband was out of town on business and I was home alone when my cell phone rang and it was my son's coach telling me he was hurt on the ice and he was being taken by ambulance to the hospital. My heart dropped. His coach asked if I wanted to talk to him and I did, my son tried to reassure me he was going to be OK, he had just broken his arm. "Just" broken his arm. They sent me a cell phone photo of him being put in the ambulance and then one of his crooked arm from the hospital. The first thing I wanted to do was get on a plane and go to him. I did not want him to be alone. Of course it was not realistic, but being a parent is not always reacting in a rational manor. His coach stayed with him in the hospital, he went home in the team van and his teammate stayed with him all night. My sister drove 90 minutes the next morning to take him to the hospital in his home town to get his arm set and and wrapped, she got him settled at his apartment, and I was on the phone with them through the whole thing. I am grateful for the support of his coach, teammates, and his Aunt for stepping in when I could not. More of that close knit hockey family.

As a parent that received that long distance call that my child was"only" hurt playing the sport he loves, my heart aches for the parents of those boys killed in the bus accident in Canada.  Because the youth hockey community is close knit, you feel like you have a bond with the parents of the team you are playing, no matter where you are. We all know the struggle that each parent of a older player goes through to balance their child's dream with raising a well rounded and successful young adult. We try to give them space and independence along with making sure they are supervised and safe. This accident is a reminder to hug our kids a little longer when we send them off on that bus and always tell them that you love them. They are never too old or independent to be reminded of your love.

This is not the first tragedy involving a sports team, and I dare say it will not be the last. When it does happen all parents feel, "That there but for the Grace of God, go I." No parent should live in fear of getting that phone call, but I am sure we all still do.